Two Days a Week Can Change Your Heart Health

October 10, 2017

I took one of my dearest friends for his 50-year colonoscopy. As I waited in the lobby of the hospital, I spent much time wondering if I should have the exam, as well. I considered my recent healthy and unhealthy choices and wondered if I would come out on the side of cancer free.

Unfortunately, my friend did not get so lucky. That day is now firmly adhered to my brain. I could never walk away from the idea that I am the only one who can create health for my own body.

“My choices, my health!” is now my motto.

Even though no one would consider me overweight, my cholesterol tests and heart exams were declining every year. When I had to begin statins to lower my cholesterol, I decided to go back to being a vegetarian or a vegan to see if a diet change would make a difference in my LDL (bad cholesterol). To my surprise, my doctor was more than just onboard, he recommended a vegan diet. In fact, he told me that all of his vegan patients have lowered their LDL with a completely plant-based diet. Most were able to get off of the statins completely. I went home and began planning for an immediate diet change.

I didn’t want to freak out my body and mind, so I decided I would start a slow plan with a plant-based diet for a couple of days a week. When I cooked the household meals from one of the vegetarian cookbooks I had written in the past, everyone in the house would want to join me in eating. Even my mother, whose sour-puss face hates when people refuse her food for another, actually joined in a few times. I had actually forgotten how much I enjoyed cooking. Plus, I did not realize how much easier vegetable-based food was to digest.

What older adults do not realize until too late is that meat becomes more and more difficult to digest as adults get older.

Red meat can spend up to 3 days in the colon. It rots there as a mucous covers it, while the body waits to digest it. However, if you continue to eat the same amount of animal protein every day, then your body never has time to remove those pockets of undigested meat from the colon. These particulates turn into hard black matter and ultimately cause problems in the colon. Personally, I feel this is the beginning of all colon disease.

After about a month of eating plant-based for 2-3 days a week, I moved up to 5 days a week being a pseudo-vegan, which left me 2 days a week with just one portion of meat or fish each day. By the end of two months, no one could force me to go back to being a 7-day-a-week carnivore.

I had lost 9 pounds without even trying.

My stomach was not bloated after eating.

I was having one—if not two—easy bowel movements a day.

Interestingly enough, I felt younger and looked younger.

Even my doctor shared that my LDL went to a very safe number after just two months of changing my diet. I was able to get off of the statin.

In the past 1 1/2 years of being a full-fledged vegan, I have written a Vegan Cookbook called Angel Feast. The recipes are simple, easy, and rarely costly—certainly not as expensive as meat, ever. My husband and I spend less the $100 a week on groceries, cooking 95% of our meals at home.

Yes, that’s right! I want the people I love to have this book for as cheap as I could arrange it with the publishers. Download it, even if you don’t think you’ll make the shift for a while. When you get a wake up call to be more heart-healthy, this book will be ready and waiting on your bookshelf.

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Meta

The Buddhists believe that: All human life is as a person getting into a boat—on a voyage. However, the vessel has one small hole at the bottom, giving the journey an inevitable end. This belief is not tragic, but authentic. It is realistic and conventional. The boat of human life will eventually sink. It has […]

The Hummus House Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant Menu I recently got a gift certificate for my birthday for this quaint restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. (900 NE 20th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304) When my husband and I arrived, the first impasse was that there was no free parking. In my estimation I always have to factor in time […]

I had an epiphany after many years of meditation. Learning to quiet my mind has never been as difficult for me as for some of my clients. Even so, I have discovered an even easier way than ever before. I’m floating in the ethers in minutes now. I want to share this process with my […]